Antifreeze help please?

[MountainBuck]

The time has come to change the antifreeze in my 4500P and I cannot determine which antifreeze to use.

According to the Ventrac manual on page 51 it states that 50% ethylene glycol is needed and "..ethylene glycol antifreeze of different colors can be mixed."

However, the FD851D engine manual on page 11 states a "Permanent Type of Antifreeze Green Colored" at a 50% mix concentration.

My confusion is the radiator has a clear antifreeze from the factory that has a slight pinkish hue to it. Looking into the radiator it does look more reddish. I'll attach a picture of the actual fluid in the radiator. It sort of looks like the Prestone pink premix, but not exactly.

Does this current antifreeze look familiar to anyone? Any recommendations?

 

[Chris616]

I did quite a bit of research on this before doing the first coolant change on my 4500P. I paid attention to the note on page 51 of the Ventrac manual regarding using an antifreeze that was “low silicate, phosphate free”. Unfortunately, some of the manufacturers like Prestone don’t specify this, as far as I could find.

I asked Ventrac and their recommendation, which is probably what they use, is linked below:

https://www.owi.com/commercial/brands/fleet-charge/heavy-duty-coolants/fleet-charge-fs

I couldn’t source that in Canada so had to find another product that matched the specifications.

 

[stevem5215]

Fleet charge is the only Anti freeze I'd use in my diesel tractors. I used it for years and years without any issue. The idea is that they have anti shock additive that allows for full contact with the internal water jackets. That allows for better heat transfer when running hard. Very important in diesels really.

I always bought mine at Tractor Supply. They always carried it.

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

I may have overlooked something, but I did not see any mention of antifreeze changes in the Owner's Manual supplied with my Ventrac Model 4500Y. Is there a specified change interval?

(I have used a hydrometer and a voltmeter to test the health of the antifreeze in my Model 4500Y.)

 

[Chris616]

I may have overlooked something, but I did not see any mention of antifreeze changes in the Owner's Manual supplied with my Ventrac Model 4500Y. Is there a specified change interval?

The only specification in the 4500 manuals that I've looked at is in the "Maintenance Schedule" section at the back, where "Service the Cooling System" is defined on a yearly basis. It's open to interpretation what "servicing" entails, since the "Servicing the Cooling System" section of the manual covers several different things, only two of which are draining and/or flushing the coolant.

My 4500P is six years old now and I put about 50 hours per year on it. The first time that I changed the coolant I recognized that not all of it drains out, so if the coolant really does need to be changed because it's at the end of its useful life that I should be flushing it as well, when it would then be something of a pain to get the concentration of coolant correct when there is an unknown quantity of "just water" retained. I also realized that draining the coolant is one of the simplest maintenance jobs to do on the machine, and not expensive, so I've decided to drain and refill, but not flush, the coolant every third year when I'm doing an oil change and the right side engine access panel is off.